“Shakespeare is still alive”
план-конспект урока по английскому языку (11 класс) на тему

Stages of the Lesson

Activity

Teacher Guide

Student Guide

Material Needed

Time

1

Greeting

1

2

Introduction

T:“ I have good reason to be content, for thank God I can read and perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depth”  (John Keats)

The words of this great romantic poet can express my feelings and I do hope yours.

William Shakespeare. A playwright, a poet and a writer…

400 years have passed but his works are still alive.  I bet everyone has a favourite of Shakespeare’s works. One of my favourites is Sonnet #130.

Listen to the velvet voice of Allan Rickman, reciting the sonnet.

T: What did you feel and imagine listening to the sonnet?

T:  The pupils of our school created the project “Listening to Shakespeare’s sonnets I feel and imagine.” Look at their pictures of the woman whom Sonnet 130 was devoted to. Do you feel the same?

Besides sonnets he wrote 37 plays. What plays by William Shakespeare do you know and which one is your favourite?

Ps are speaking about their feelings

Ps are giving the titles of Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets.

The poster with a quote

Link to “You Tube rutube.ru

Portraits of a dark-haired lady

4

3

Warm-up activity

T:  What main themes did William Shakespeare touch upon in his plays?

T: Relationships is a very important theme of most of Shakespeare’s plays. How do you understand the word “relationships”?

T: 1. What relationships do you consider to be the most important for you?

2. Do you ever have any disagreements or conflicts with your parents?

How do you usually solve them?

3. (the provocative question) Your parents always know best, don’t they?

 Imagine that the classroom is a spectrum. Move to the left of the room if you agree and to the right if you don’t agree. Explain your positioning.

(Possible answers)

Ps: Family and relationships, leadership and power, fate and destiny, identity and equality, justice and rules…

Ps are explaining the meaning of the word.

Ps (possible answers)

Family relationships.

Ps are speaking about their own experiences.

4

4

Activity 1

Speaking

(Exploring the relationships in Shakespeare’s plays.)

T: “The voice of parents is voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants” William Shakespeare.  How do you understand these words?

T.   Reading Shakespeare’s plays you have noticed that conflict between parents and children is a recurrent theme across many of them.  The way the characters communicate with each other is very important to how the relationship develops and how they understand each other.

Ps  are speaking about the relationships in the family In Renaissance England,  about a  father’s role based on fifth commandment, the overloading of the will of father and the rebellion of daughters.  They are giving the example from Shakespeare’s plays.    

3

5

Activity 2

Video watching

 T.: A video clip from “Romeo and Juliet” (Act 3 Scene5).

Pre-watching  task

1. What are the conflicts, which appear in “Romeo and Juliet”, caused by?
2. Do such issues seem familiar to you?

While-watching task

1. Why are the parents so angry with Julia?
2. Whom does Julia choose to marry?
3. Is her father aware that she has already married Romeo?
4. What does her father expect?

Post-watching

1. Give the summary of the video “Romeo and Juliet” (Act 3 Scene 5)
2. What advice would you give to the parents and children in the play you are studying?

Home task: rewrite the scene from “Romeo and Juliet” in the style of a modern soap opera script. Set the relationship dilemmas in a modern family.

Ps are  doing the tasks individually

Access to the Internet

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6

Activity 3

Writing

T.: The relationship between fathers and their daughters in Shakespeare’s plays is very controversial especially when the mentality of father and his daughter is completely different. Father usually proves to be incapable as he doesn’t know his own child’s nature and he doesn’t will to know enough about her desires and wishes.  

In “Activity Sheet” with scenes from the plays add thoughts and speech bubbles to show what you think these fathers and daughters might be thinking and saying.

Activity Sheet from “Shakespeare lives at schools” teachers resource pack

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Activity 4

Reading and discussing

T.: Do you know how Shakespeare conveys a character’s thoughts about relationships and emotions in his plays?

T.: The task is to read the soliloquy from “Romeo and Juliet” (Act 2 Scene 2)

Whispered reading.

1. Read through the text.
2. Discuss and jot down what you think Romeo is feeling.
3. Make a mind map of the adjectives showing Romeo’s feelings.

T.:  Have you ever used soliloquy?

Ps are working in 2 groups

Soliloquys in  Agony Columns

“Romeo and Juliet”, Act 2

Scene 2

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8

Activity 5

Summing up

T.: Using the materials from the school project “Family Magazine” answer the questions.

What similarities and what differences you can find in the family relationships of Shakespeare’s times and nowadays?  Do you share your interests and opinions with your parents? How to bridge the gap between the parents and children?

Do the family issues from Shakespeare’s plays still exist?

Ps are working in 2 groups

Pages “Generation gap” from different issues of “Family Magazine”

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Conclusion

T.: Family is the most valuable thing in the world.  “Family… the ones you live with, laugh with, and love.” Only mutual understanding between parents and children will make the family happy. Good family relationship depends upon both: a parent and a child. “It is a wise father that knows his child” (William Shakespeare)

T.:  Summing up, can we say that the themes touched upon in Shakespeare’s plays are topical today?

Ps  are self-evaluating.

The song “The living Years lyrics”

4

10

Follow up

Positive encouragement to Ps.

Ps will show their modern soap opera scripts to other classes at the next lesson.